


Afraid of the Dark

by bellatemple



Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Non-Sexual Bondage, Prophetic Visions, Season/Series 05, but no one says "I know you're still in there", evil Duke, fighting off possession
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:47:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23993275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bellatemple/pseuds/bellatemple
Summary: An alternate take on season 5B.Nathan finds himself with a new trouble in the wake of Duke exploding: psychic visions. He's determined to use them to protect his home, make up for his past mistakes, and never lose anyone else again.
Relationships: Audrey Parker/Nathan Wuornos, Duke Crocker & Nathan Wuornos
Comments: 8
Kudos: 27





	Afraid of the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> This fic absolutely would not exist without the cheerleading of the delightful [Aerica_Menai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aerica_Menai/pseuds/Aerica_Menai), who's not even in this fandom, but who suggested challenging each other to write at least 400 words per day. This (and possibly at least two other fics) are the result. You're amazing, sweetie. Thank you! :D

Nathan wasn't sure exactly when it started, when his worry for Audrey, for Duke, for Haven itself had coalesced and transformed from simple dread into something . . . else. Something extra. And _useful_. 

It might have been when Dwight announced his intention to hand control of Haven over completely to the Guard, though the image that flashed into his head then, of people pushing back against the Guard's authority to steal something as small but necessary as batteries — that wasn't too big a leap, he thought. Martial law might seem necessary for civil control, sometimes, especially when tensions were as high as they were now, and Nathan believed Dwight had Haven's best interests at heart, but it wasn't hard to see the ways that could go horribly wrong. 

The criminals being sentenced to a sort of living death via trouble was weirdly specific though. 

He didn't fully understand what was happening until he was pulling up to the edge of town and the wall of fog that surrounded it, Audrey at his side, and saw Duke leaning against his truck waiting for them. 

"So you really think I can just walk through this thing, huh?" Duke asked, and Nathan saw what was about to happen with such startling clarity that his knees buckled and he dropped to sit abruptly on the street. 

_Duke, storming off into the fog in a huff._

_Audrey, lying prone on a cot, eyes open and empty._

_Dave slumped in a chair, a dire warning carved into his arm. Gloria drugging Vince unconscious, a heartbroken expression on her face. Dwight running full speed into a hail of bullets, fired by other Guard members. Nathan himself, standing alone on the steps to the Armory and watching it disappear in a flash of light._

"Nate?" Duke asked. He and Audrey were crouching over him, twin expressions of concern on their faces. "You alright there, buddy?" 

Nathan grabbed Duke by the front of his shirt. "You can't leave." 

Duke swallowed, eyes wide. Audrey shook her head. "Of course he won't —" 

"How did you know?" Duke asked. Audrey stared at him in shock. Duke flicked a glance her way and swallowed again. 

"Think I have a trouble," Nathan muttered. 

"Yeah." Duke made a show of knocking on Nathan's leg. "We knew that already." 

"New trouble," Nathan said. "Visions, or — you _can't_ leave!" 

"Duke?" The fury in Audrey's voice was barely contained. "You were going to leave?!"

Duke shifted from his crouch to a seat, pulling his shirt from Nathan's grip as he went. "Was thinking about it, yeah." 

"You can't," Nathan said again. More images flashed through his head: _Dwight bound in barbed wire. Audrey in tears over Charlotte Cross's body. A man flayed to the bone by darkness itself._ "You can't." 

"This is all my fault," Duke said. He was trying to sound angry, but Nathan knew him well enough to hear the empty note underneath it. "I'm the one who did all this. If I stay — I'll only make it worse." 

_A man eating the flesh off a dead woman. Another in civilian clothes shattering to pieces on the police station floor. A dark, whirling storm bearing down on the center of town._

"Seriously?!" Audrey had a full head of angry steam now. "Haven is _falling apart_ and you're the one who's immune to the new troubles. And you want to leave?!" She stood, towering over Duke, who refused to look back. "I knew you were a lot of things, Duke Crocker, but I never thought you were a coward." 

She stormed off to scowl at the fog wall. Duke sat half-curled around his knees, hands balled into tight fists against his forehead. Nathan leaned back against his truck, blinking in the dust raised by Audrey's stomping feet. 

"Precognition," he said faintly. "You leave, it all goes to hell." 

Duke shoved to his feet and stomped off. Not towards the fog wall, but back towards town. 

"Where the hell are you going now?" Audrey shouted, rushing after him. 

"I don't fucking know!" Duke yelled back. "Maybe I'll find the woman whose boyfriend I got killed! Or one of the _hundreds of other people_ whose lives I just ruined. I'm sure they'll be super excited to see me." 

Ruined. 

That was what troubles did. People. Families. Communities. All ruined. 

Nathan started to stand, couldn't tell his legs were wobbling until they dropped him back to the ground. 

"Think I got another trouble," he told the empty air. "It's all going to go to hell."

* * *

Nathan pulled up to the school in Duke's truck and took a moment just to breathe. He couldn't feel the effect it had on his body, but he could see it work in the way the shaking in his hands stilled, the way his thoughts stopped bouncing around quite so quickly from worry to worry. He twisted in his seat and looked back at the truck bed, and the passenger who rode there. 

Duke was doing a breathing exercise of his own, his elbows propped on his raised knees, his shoulders slumped against the bed's plastic canopy. "Well?" he asked, not bothering to open his eyes. Nathan wondered what had let him know he was looking, if it was the creak of the seat or a change in the air, or if Duke just knew him that well. He didn't remember actually being able to feel people looking at him, back before his trouble came back, but maybe it was like being colorblind. Maybe even when he could feel, he was always just a little bit numb. 

"We're here," he said. 

"And?" Duke raised an eyebrow, but still didn't open his eyes. 

Nathan said nothing. Duke sighed and finally looked at him. 

Brown. Nathan tried not to let his relief show. He was never sure anymore what color Duke's eyes were going to be when he looked at them. 

"What does the great, All-Seeing Wuornos predict for this little venture?" Duke asked. 

Nathan scowled, or maybe just squinted his eyes as he looked back at the school. He was pretty sure he braced himself; his knuckles went white against the seat. 

But he didn't see anything new. He told Duke as much. 

"So . . . battery-hoarding criminals it is, then." Duke closed his eyes again. "Goody." 

"Better than getting eaten by the dark." 

Duke's head rocked back soundlessly. He smirked. "Speak for yourself." 

Duke was immune to the darkness trouble that was flaying people all over town, the reason why Dwight had decided to gather people here instead of letting them hunker in place and fend for themselves, the way most of Haven — and probably most of Maine — would prefer. Nathan had seen terrible things happen in this school and had warned Dwight about each, but it was the only place large enough and close enough to hold everyone they needed to evacuate from before the power station gave out completely. 

Duke would be just fine out in the open on his own, though, even with the power going out. That wasn't the kind of darkness Duke had to worry about. 

"Is it getting better or worse?" Nathan asked. 

Duke grimaced, jerking against his shackles. Audrey had wrapped several layers of gauze around his wrists, but Nathan was sure there was still bruising underneath, that Duke's shoulders and arms had to be aching from being locked up so long. Legs, too; he was in full, prison-issue restraints, complete with a hobbling chain. 

"You tell me," Duke said through gritted teeth, snapping Nathan back to the present. When Duke opened his eyes again, they were solid, glossy black. 

Nathan sighed. "About the same, then." 

Duke yanked against his chains, breathing hard through his nose. Nathan wished there was something, anything he could do to ease this struggle. 

There wasn't, though. Nathan had gotten good at triggering his new trouble in the last few weeks. Audrey had helped, as insightful about the new troubles as she'd always been about the old ones. Maybe it was that still-lingering spark of Mara, that drop of black paint in a bucket of white, or maybe it was just who Audrey was. He could just about call them on command now, tapping into his ever-present dread, though _what_ they showed him was still something of a crap shoot. As far as he could tell, this was still their best case scenario. It was like the school; even with all the ways it could go wrong, it was better than letting the darkness kill people. The one when the lights went out, or the one lurking inside Duke. 

Duke grinned at Nathan, though his black eyes still seemed pained. "I'm going to eat every person in that school," he said, something deep and otherworldly underlining his words. Nathan pulled a pen injector from the pack Gloria had put together for him and slammed it wordlessly into Duke's upper arm. Duke snarled at him like a rabid dog, but moments later his eyes turned brown again and rolled up in his head, and he slumped against the truck canopy. 

Nathan stared at him for a long moment, trying for the thousand and first time to get even a glimpse of what had happened to bring these strange fits on. At first it had just been blood, and they'd all just gotten a little better about helping him avoid it, but in the last few days, it seemed to have started happening spontaneously. And though Nathan had managed to see all sorts of things since his new trouble had been triggered, past, present, and future, he couldn't see anything about Duke when no one else was around. So while Duke might survive in the dark just fine, he was the only one who could. And for Duke's sake and everyone else's, he couldn't be left alone. 

So they had the chains. And the drugs. And a constant, rotating watch. And though Nathan wasn't sure what chafed worse for someone who was normally so independent, Duke never complained.

Nathan checked how many doses were left in the pen injector, then tucked it into his pocket and climbed out of the truck. Dwight met him at the tailgate, looking over Duke's slumped form with frustration. 

"Again?" 

"Thought he had a handle on it," Nathan said. "He didn't." 

"Still talking about eating babies?" 

"And everyone else." 

Dwight looked at the line of refugees picking up supplies and filing into the school. "We can't bring him in like this. Tensions are too high as it is. He tells someone in there he's going to eat them —" 

_An angry crowd, packed into a dim and dingy hallway. Shouting and pushing, a body slamming hard into the cinderblock wall. Duke, his face twisted in pain, as the crowd pulled him back and slammed him into the wall again._

"I know that look," Dwight said, his hand up and waving in Nathan's face. 

"They'll tear him limb from limb."

"That would suck," Duke slurred — and it was only Duke, this time, no weird, deep second voice behind those words. Nathan looked over and saw vague, unfocused brown eyes looking back. 

"How you feeling, buddy?" Dwight asked. The handcuffs rattled as Duke gave him a bleary thumbs up. 

"Need new drugs," he mumbled. "Building a resisssisi — fuck." He brought both hands up to drag across his face. "Shoulda let me go, Nathan." 

Nathan shook his head, faintly relieved at the complaint. "You're too dangerous alone." 

"Into the Void." Duke curled over farther than Nathan would have guessed he could, his head between his knees. "Through the river and over the woods. . . ."

"Yeah, we cannot bring him in there like this," Dwight said. "It's really too bad he's immune to Henry." 

"Shouldn't even be using him. I told you he'll turn." 

"You got another way to keep troublemakers contained that doesn't split our resources, I'll be glad to hear it." Nathan said nothing. Dwight nodded. "We're keeping an eye on him. At least he hadn't threatened to eat anyone. Charlotte's leading a team out to the power station to get it up and running right again."

Nathan frowned. "You didn't —" 

"Dave didn't go," Dwight said. "I remembered." 

Nathan nodded. He'd seen that, Dave tripping in Trouble Alley and getting a man killed, shortly before they headed out to the school. "I'll stay here with Duke. Just leave me a lantern and some batteries." 

"We need you with _us_ , Nathan. Your new trouble's already headed off a lot of problems." 

"My new trouble is why Duke's like this in the first place." 

"Over the ocean and over the sea," Duke sang softly. "Bring back my bonnie to me, to me." 

Someone shouted from the ration lines. Dwight let out a faint growl. They'd already managed to identify and sequester the battery thief from Nathan's visions, but it seemed there was always someone willing to try _something._ "Figure it out," Dwight said. "I know he's your friend, Nathan, but we need to think about everyone's safety here." And he strode off to take on whatever was disrupting the line. 

Duke sat up and slouched into the side of the truck again, still singing. "So bring back my bonnie to meee. . . ."

* * *

"Nathan," Duke said, exhausted but sober again an hour or so later. The refugees had all been organized and brought inside. The sharp angle of the setting sun cast long shadows over the parking lot. "You can't stay out here." 

"Can't bring you in there," Nathan said. "Can't leave you alone to go mad or die." 

"Yeah, well." Duke raised his hands, tugging compulsively against the chains again. "Not really excited about sitting here and watching you die, either."

Audrey walked up, and Nathan took a moment to just drink in the beauty of her, the sun gleaming through her ruffled hair like a halo. "What's going on, Nathan? We've got to get inside." 

"That's what I told him," Duke said. 

"Can't go in," said Nathan. "Mob will kill him." 

"You had another vision." Audrey reached up to cup his face and Nathan leaned into the sensation. He was exhausted too, he realized. They'd all been running on fumes for weeks now. "What was it about?" 

"His exact words were 'ripped limb from limb'," Duke said. Audrey flashed him a frown, then turned back to Nathan. 

"What _exactly_ did you see?" 

Nathan told her. She listened with an intent expression. 

"Were there any other clues?" she asked. "Could you see what time of day it was, what set them off? Maybe you two can stay outside while it's light out and only come in when it gets dark." 

"You could get me a crate," Duke suggested, tone dry. "Keep me in there while you're busy so I don't pee on the curtains." 

Audrey tilted her head. Nathan found himself picturing it, trying to determine where they could find something large enough. 

"I was kidding," Duke said. 

"Can't kill you if they can't get to you," Nathan said. "And we could still watch you." 

"No," Duke said, stiffening. "I was _kidding_." 

"We'd make sure it was nice and big," Audrey said, her lips twitching. "Comfortable. You could stretch out." 

"I'm already in _chains_ , guys." 

"Need to find it fast," Nathan mused. "Think we can find anythign in the school?" 

"No," Duke said again, chains rattling. "Nathan. _No._ " 

Nathan quirked his lip up. "It's no good," he said finally. "He'd just cry the whole time." 

"You're right," Audrey said with a put-upon sigh, even as she grinned. "What about a straight jacket? And one of those Hannibal masks!" 

Duke stared between them, eyes wide and reassuringly brown. "You two are awful. The absolute worst. And — mind you — I hang out with hardened criminals." 

Audrey held up a battery powered lantern. "Dwight sent me out with this. Said to tell you this wouldn't be a regular thing. Something about being 'on point'." 

Nathan leaned down to catch her mouth in a grateful kiss. "Tell him I remember." 

"I've got stuff to do inside, but I'll come back later. Or — send someone out to take watch." 

"Not tonight." Nathan shook his head. "I don't need —" 

"Yes, you do," Duke said loudly. 

"You have to sleep at some point, Nathan," Audrey agreed. "I don't want to lose either of you." She looked into the truck at Duke, who had his head on his arms. "I've had enough of losing." 

"No argument here," Duke said. "Except about the cage thing." 

"Good." Audrey reached in and cupped Duke's cheek, the same as she had Nathan's. Nathan braced himself to be jealous, but found he only loved her more for being so caring. So _Audrey_. 

Even with everything else that had happened, he couldn't regret having her back, whole and healthy. 

"Keep your lantern lit, boys," she said. "And Duke?" 

"Yeah." 

"No eating Nathan." 

Duke gave her a cheeky, rattling salute. "I know you're the only one allowed to do that." 

Nathan wondered if he was blushing. 

"Damn right," Audrey said, and popped up on her toes to give Nathan another quick kiss. 

And then she was gone. 

As the sun faded over the distant trees, Nathan switched on the lantern and hopped into the truck across from Duke. He closed his eyes and tried to summon a vision for the coming night. 

_Confusion. Fear. Anger. Two dead in the basement, as someone tried to figure out who had the darkness trouble by process of elimination._

He opened his eyes and picked up his radio to call it in to Dwight. 

"I could help," Duke said. 

"No you can't." 

Duke sighed and closed his eyes. Nathan wondered what color they'd be the next time they opened. 

"Know any good word games?"

"Don't make me drug you again." 

It was going to be yet another long night.

* * *

_"So." Duke's voice hissed and slid, even on that single syllable, drawing it out into a "Sssssssssooooooo." Nathan stared into those pitch black eyes, that cold toothy smile, and wondered if he'd ever see his real friend again. If his real friend had ever existed in the first place, or if this thing had always been there, waiting. Lurking. "This . . . is your plan."_

_Nathan stared back, refusing to be intimidated. "Looks like."_

_"A few chains," Duke all but sang it, carefully enunciating every letter. Mara had spoken much the same way. Nathan wondered if what she'd done to him had some sort of lingering effect, if it was actually her peering out of Duke's strange, solid black eyes, and not Duke at all. "The occasional drugs . . . which, by the way, only really serve to make me angry. You think these . . ._ trinkets _. . . will stop what's coming?"_

_"Don't know," Nathan said, leaning back against the side of the truck. "What's coming?"_

_"Check your crystal ball." Duke leaned forward, into the space Nathan had just vacated. "That's what you do now, isn't it? How you make all your choices? Why you told me not to run?" He sat back again, casual as you please. "Thank you for that, by the way. If I had gone out there, instead of staying in here. . . ." He tilted his head nearly to his chest as he spoke, so that he seemed to be speaking more to the air between them than to Nathan himself — then suddenly he looked up and beamed, the very picture of a happy predator ready to feast. "Well. I'd never have found my true self, would I?"_

_Nathan shook his head. "This isn't who you are."_

_"No?" Duke's grin took on a teasing, knowing edge, the expression he'd always worn when he knew he was cutting Nathan deep. "Are you suuuuure?"_

_"Yes," Nathan said, simple and flat. He was sure. This creature wore Duke's face, paraded around in Duke's body, but he was_ not _Duke Crocker._

_"I suppose you are the expert," Duke said, holding up his bound hands. "After all, you knew just how to find Audrey, didn't you. You were so certain she could conquer Mara you even let her shoot you."_

_Nathan shrugged. The memory of Mara firing at him so easily even as he spoke passionately of his and Audrey's love still hurt, even if the bullet itself never had. But he'd learned years ago how to keep Duke from seeing when his barbs landed. "Got her back in the end," he said. "We'll get you back too."_

_"Will you." Duke gave Nathan a patronizing look. "And where have I gone, exactly?"_

_"Don't know yet," Nathan said. "Buried. Trapped."_

_"Locked in my cage," Duke said, looking thoughtfully at his chains. "I don't like cages." He wrapped his fingers around the cuff on either wrist and pulled. The cuffs snapped like pencils. Nathan startled, tried to scurry out of reach. The truck was too small, though, the tailgate too firmly locked. Duke grinned, black eyes flashing with reflected moonlight, and_ pounced _—_

* * *

Nathan snapped awake. Duke sat across from him, staring out across the parking lot. His wrists were still locked up tight in their cuffs. Nathan let out a little breath of relief. Duke looked at him, the whites of his eyes blessedly visible in the light from the lantern, though it was dark enough that the brown of his irises looked black. 

"Should stretch your legs," he said. Said, not sang. Not hissed. His voice was rough and quiet and full of sardonic humor, and so beautifully normal. 

"Don't get cramps," Nathan said. Duke rolled his eyes. 

"Well, _I_ do." He shifted with a wince. "At least at Shawshank, prisoners get exercise time." 

"You want to go for a walk," Nathan said. "Now." 

"I mean. Yeah. Would settle for standing up though." Duke rolled his shoulders. "Maybe a little shackle-yoga. Seriously, man, I've been in this truck all day. My ass is numb." He spread his hands as far as they would go, pulling the chain between the cuffs tight. Nathan tried not to think of the Duke in his dream — vision? — tearing the cuffs right off. "Shit." Duke searched his face, eyes wide. "What? Does something happen if we take a walk?" 

"No," Nathan said slowly. "In the truck." He couldn't be sure the dream was a vision, but he knew it might be. It was clearer than most of his dreams had been in a long time, especially that _snap_ of the cuffs. He scooted down, opening the tailgate, noting how his legs were slower to respond than usual. Maybe he did have a cramp. He picked up the lantern and offered his hand to Duke. "Come on, then." 

Duke hesitated, looking worried. He shot a glance towards the front seat, where Nathan had kept the sedatives on the drive over. "What happens in the truck, Nathan?" 

"You break your promise to Audrey." 

Duke grimaced and climbed out without taking Nathan's hand. He moved slowly, Nathan noticed, even more than Nathan had, and lacked all his usual grace. The chains got in his way, sure, but Nathan realized his ass really must've been asleep. Probably had been for hours. 

Nathan wondered how long he'd been asleep himself. How many times Duke's eyes had changed in that time. If he'd had to struggle to keep himself from attacking or to try to wake Nathan up and ask for another dose of the sedatives that kept him at least reasonably sane. . . .

"Nathan." Nathan snapped his eyes up to look at Duke, who looked back, sane and normal and concerned. "You okay?" 

"Fine," Nathan said. "Let's walk." 

"Yeah," Duke said, though he didn't look particularly reassured. He tilted his head towards the truck. "Don't forget your lantern." 

Nathan grabbed it, double-checked that the pen injector was still in his pocket, then waved Duke on ahead. Duke all but slithered into motion, working every muscle in his body as much as possible within the confines of his chains. 

"I mentioned how weird it is that you have these, right?" he asked. 

"Coupla times," Nathan confirmed. "They were my dad's." 

Duke turned, shuffling backwards along the curb of the parking lot so he could stare at Nathan. "Yeah, that just makes it weirder." 

Nathan smiled. "Guess so." 

_Duke in the truck, snapping the cuffs._

Was that a memory? Or would it still happen? 

"Is it like your trouble?" Nathan asked. 

Duke turned to walk forwards again. "Is what like my trouble?" 

"When you go all . . . baby-eater. Your eyes go black, not silver, and you don't seem to need blood to set it off anymore —" 

"No." Duke's voice had gone cold, but not the same way baby-eater!Duke's was. It was a dull kind of cold. A hopeless kind. "I don't think silver's in my repertoire anymore, since Mara —" 

_Duke and Mara on a rug on a floor, Duke holding her down but Mara holding all the reins._

_"It's okay, Duke."_

"You slept with her." It was out of Nathan's mouth before he could think it through. Something about that vision, about Mara smiling up at Duke wearing Audrey's face, shut down the rational part of his brain. 

Duke looked away. "Yeah. Believe me, it's high up on my list of worst decisions." He turned back to Nathan, frowning. "Did you see that, or are you just getting way more perceptive?" 

"Saw it," Nathan said, hearing from his voice how tight his jaw was and making a concerted choice to loosen it. "Just a flash." 

Duke shook his head and started walking again. "Your new trouble's made you a fucking voyeur. Anyway. Whatever she did, the black's part of the package. What's happening now, though, feels . . . different." 

"But it started with your trouble. When Alex bled on you, and you told everyone to run."

 _Duke, smashing through three desks as he charged after Alex through the bullpen, only stopping when Dwight got him with the taser._

Nathan hadn't been there when it happened. He'd seen it maybe half a dozen times since, though. 

"Sort of," Duke said. "It was less — focused when it was my trouble. But I think setting it off got something's attention." His shoulders pulled in and stayed there, like a lingering shrug. "My usual trouble, it's like a high. Like euphoria and paranoia turned up to eleven. This is . . . colder. Calculated. Like something slithers in and just . . . switches off the parts of me that don't want to kill." 

"And the strength?" Nathan asked, finally getting to the question he'd wanted to ask from the beginning. "Is that still there?"

Duke stopped walking. He didn't turn around. "Why?" 

"Yes or no, Duke?" 

Duke's shoulders dropped suddenly. Nathan wasn't surprised when his answering "yes" had an extra bass note beneath it. 

"You could get out of those chains whenever you like." 

Duke turned, slow and stiff. His face was pale in the blue light of Nathan's lantern, his eyes pits. Nathan wrapped his hand around the pen injector in his pocket, trusting muscle memory to make sure he had it ready to go without looking. 

"Yes," Duke said, hitting the S extra hard. 

"Why haven't you?" 

Duke lifted his hands, staring at the length of chain between them, the long line that ran from his wrists to his waist, then down to the hobbling chain between his ankles. "I don't know," he said, voice distant and oddly casual, just bordering on sing-song. "I wanted you to feel safe." 

"Because," Nathan said, with a conviction he didn't feel. "Because you're still _Duke_. You're still in control." 

Duke tilted his head. "Of course I'm still Duke." He didn't sound anything like himself anymore, or like any other person either. No one spoke like that, so slow and carefully enunciated. "Who else would I be?" 

"You said you caught something's attention," Nathan said. "Whose?" 

Duke looked away, a tight, pained smile on his face. 

"The no-marks killer's?" Nathan pressed. He wondered why he hadn't thought to interrogate Duke like this before. There was so much they still didn't know, so much he hadn't managed to _see_ yet. A flicker of something crossed Duke's face, and Nathan knew he was on the right track. If he just asked the right questions, Duke could be an incredible resource — 

"I don't want you to feel safe anymore." 

The cuffs snapped. Like pencils. Like twigs. 

Like bones. 

Nathan had the injector out in a moment, swinging at Duke's arm. Duke was faster, catching Nathan by the wrist. There was an impossibly loud _crunch_ , and Nathan's hand spasmed, nearly losing its grip on the injector. Duke let him go again with a noise somewhere between a scoff and a laugh. 

"Look at you," he said. Sang. _Hissed_. "I just crushed your wrist. Radius and ulna and all those little carpal bones. You should be on the ground. Screaming. In-ca-pa-ci-tated." He tasted every syllable of the word and smiled, broad and toothy. "But here you stand. Unphased." He tilted his head, leaning in. "Precognition isn't your only _gift_." 

Nathan's hand didn't want to work. The pen injector balanced precariously in his grip. But it was still _in_ his grip. And while his hand didn't _want_ to, he was pretty sure he could still make it work. 

He slammed the injector into Duke's neck. Duke _roared_ — but dropped, crashing to his knees and staying there, wobbling like a drunk. Nathan's hand spasmed again and he stumbled back, lantern and all, casting Duke into shadows that couldn't eat him alive — but might yet swallow him whole just the same. 

And then Audrey was there, a warm hand on Nathan's good arm, carrying a light of her own, both battery-powered in her hand and the subtle, metaphorical light that was all her own. "I heard a scream. What happened?" 

Duke's head rolled slowly on his neck, and he made a sound that was almost a laugh. Nathan's vision swirled faintly, but he pushed it aside. There was too much going on for more than one of them to be incapacitated at a time. "We need to rethink that cage idea," he said. "And get stronger drugs." 

"Your arm." Audrey reached for it, only to grimace apologetically when Nathan flinched away. It wouldn't hurt unless she touched it, which meant he could continue to ignore it until they got Duke squared away. 

"Object lesson," Duke muttered. Audrey moved towards him, ignoring Nathan's hissed warning. "About gifts and curses." 

Audrey took Duke's chin in her hand, angling his head up. His eyes were half-lidded, one bloodshot but normal, the other filling with black and then clearing again in a slow, steady pulse. "He's getting worse, isn't he." 

"He broke his chains," Nathan said. "Could have any time. Didn't until now." 

"Please," Duke mumbled, voice empty of any tone, good or bad. "Please." 

Audrey gathered him in her arms and looked up at Nathan. "Can you see it? How this ends?" 

Nathan swallowed and shook his head. "Not yet." 

He bent down, trying and failing to pick up the pen injector. He wondered how much damage he'd done, forcing his hand to work like that. 

How much damage Duke would have done if he hadn't. 

"Badly," he said finally. "I think — it all ends badly."

* * *

"Got a couple more sedatives we could try," Gloria said, examining Nathan's arm by the light of yet another battery-powered lantern. The skin had gone purple, his wrist vanishing under all the swelling. "I still think we should try an antipsychotic." 

"He's not crazy," Nathan said, ignoring all the times he'd thought of the normal Duke, the brown-eyed Duke, the Duke he'd insisted on seeing in his full glory again before allowing Audrey to stay outside with him while he went for help, as the 'sane' version. "He's being . . . taken over."

Gloria gave Nathan a sharp look, searching his eyes. "You see that, Chuckles, or is that just what you want to think?" 

"He said it." Nathan looked away, back at his wrist. "The real him." 

Gloria nodded. "Something's got its teeth in him." She took hold of his elbow in one hand and his hand in the other. "Brace yourself. This is going to — well, no. It won't hurt. It'll sound nasty, though." She gave his hand a firm tug, and sure enough, Nathan could hear something grinding in his wrist. "No plaster around here for a proper cast, and I don't like the idea of casting it without x-rays anyway. You're probably going to need surgery when all this is over. But I can wrap it. And if you _leave it alone_ , you might get some functionality back someday down the road." 

"It's fine," Nathan said, wiggling his fingers in her grip just to prove to himself he still could. Gloria gave him a sharp glare, letting go of his elbow and reaching for their diminishing stock of gauze. 

"So help me, Wuornos, I will tie your entire arm down if I have to. When I say leave it alone, I mean _leave it alone_. Duke — or the thing trying to wear him like a suit — did a number on you. You may not feel it now, but you will someday. And you're already going to hate yourself enough with everything else you've done to that body of yours." 

Nathan sighed through his nose and did his best to hold still while she wrapped his arm, elbow to fingertips. He even bit back a protest when she pulled out a sling. He hated the damned things. "Need to get back out there," he said. "Audrey —" 

"Audrey can handle Duke just fine. Ain't like your visions have given you an advantage with him so far." 

Nathan winced at the recrimination. "Been trying," he muttered. 

"I know, kiddo. He's immune. That's part of what makes this whole thing so damned difficult." 

Nathan nodded, rolling his shoulder a little and testing his free arm to make sure the sling wouldn't limit his range of motion too much. He didn't know what else to say. He couldn't help but feel like a failure. He had this powerful new trouble, but it was turning out just as useless as the old one. He opened his mouth, not sure what might come out, and let it close again when he saw Dwight walking up. 

"Heard Audrey went out to take a shift." Dwight nodded to the sling, frowning. "What happened?" 

"Apparently Duke can hulk his way out of chains," Gloria said. "And didn't take kindly to Nathan trying to dose him again." 

Dwight pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose. "That's just what we need. So, what, he's gone?" 

"He's normal again," Nathan said. "Was when I left anyway. Going back out there now." 

"No." Dwight crossed his arms over his chest. "No, we can't keep going in and out like this. People are going to start to talk. Get ideas. We need to _solve_ this." He pulled out his phone. "There's got to be an old trouble or something we can use to keep him under control." 

_Duke, face blank, shuffling obediently along as Vince and Dave guided him down a hallway. Sitting motionless save for a slow, uneven blink of his ordinary, brown eyes._

God help him, that was the best vision Nathan had had with Duke in it in weeks. 

"Yeah." He leaned back in his seat, suddenly exhausted. "I think there is."

* * *

Dwight went out for a while. Nathan knew there were a lot more things he needed to deal with than the Duke issue. He'd seen some of it and knew there were bound to be plenty of other problems with whole neighborhoods of people taking shelter together in a nonresidential building. It was strange to think about, though. So much of Nathan's mental space was taken up with Duke and those black eyes and whether they were going to lose him completely. Keeping hundreds of people fed and comfortable in a school building just seemed so . . . normal. He'd helped his father do something similar during a storm years ago. Evacuations and emergency shelters were things Haven knew how to do, even when they weren't dealing with murderous troubles. 

Gloria tried to make conversation for a while, nattering on about Vicky and baby Aaron. Nathan listened with half an ear, wondering idly when Gloria had started talking about "Intern" like she was her own daughter, instead of a coworker or protege. He shouldn't be surprised; she'd adopted Ben and raised him as her own after all. She seemed to take people in as easy as breathing. He wondered what it was like to be worthy of that kind of love. 

"You doing okay there, kiddo?" she asked, and he realized he hadn't answered her back in . . . well. A while. A long time even for a Wuornos. He dredged up what he thought was a small smile. She pressed a hand to his forehead with a frown. "Let me get you a blanket. You might not feel cold or pain, but that doesn't mean you aren't going into shock." 

"'M fine," Nathan muttered, but made no effort to stop her when she wrapped a blanket around his shoulders, tucking it in around the sling to hold it in place. "Not worried about me." 

Gloria sighed and shook her head. "You never are. Sometimes I wish Garland were still around, so I could slap him." 

Nathan blinked and frowned. He opened his mouth to reply, but the door to the office they'd turned into their infirmary opened and Audrey slipped in, and defending his father fell lower on his priority list than making sure she was still in one piece. She flashed him a smile and held the door open, letting Dwight in behind her, carrying Duke slung over his shoulders in a fireman's carry. 

"He can't be in here," Nathan said, shoving to his feet. The world spun faintly. He ignored it. "If he goes bad —" 

"He's drugged to the gills," Dwight said, as Gloria hurried to clear off a cot. He set Duke down on it much more gently than Nathan might have guessed, then patted the butt of his taser on his belt. "And we're armed." 

Audrey came over, fussing with Nathan's blanket, careful not to touch his arm. "How are you?" she asked, talking to him but looking at Gloria. "Is it broken?" 

"Definitely. Won't know how bad until we can get an x-ray, but that arm's going to be out of commission for a long while." Gloria bent over Duke on the cot, brushing the hair off his forehead. Nathan wondered if she'd adopted him, too. "Duke did a number on you, poor thing. He's going to hate himself when he's back to normal." 

"Duke and I beat each other up all the time," Nathan said. 

Audrey just shook her head at him. Her hand, pressed to the back of his neck, was still cool from the night air. 

Duke let out a soft moan, and even Gloria stepped back a little as they waited to see what color his eyes would be when they opened. They fluttered unevenly, just enough to give them a glimpse of white, before he rolled onto his stomach and started to snore. 

"Like I said." Dwight shrugged, letting go of his taser again. "Drugged to the gills." 

"Thought he was building a resistance," Nathan said. "He didn't go out when I dosed him earlier." 

"I'm not sure you got him with a full dose." Audrey rubbed his shoulder, fingers dipping down beneath his collar and the strap of the sling to make sure he'd feel it. "I gave him another after you left and he dropped right off." 

"Is that safe?" Nathan looked at Gloria. "He could OD." 

"It's not a long term plan, to be sure," Gloria said. She had Duke's wrist in her hands, taking his pulse. "He'll probably have a hell of a hangover when he wakes up. But it shouldn't hurt him, just this once." She looked at Dwight. "You said you were going to look for a trouble you could use?" 

"McHugh's on it," Dwight said. "He's asking around. Question is, what do we do with him in the meantime, if keeping him drugged isn't an option." 

"Equipment cage," Nathan said. Audrey pulled her hand away from him with a sharp intake of breath, and he looked up at her. "I know. It was a joke. But it should be harder to bust out of than cuffs. Can take him to the station in the morning, first light." 

Duke muttered a slurred curse, and they all tensed. But he made no other move. 

"I don't like this," Audrey said. "I don't like any of this." 

"Can't let him hurt anyone." Nathan shifted, coming up against the resistance of the sling. "Anyone else." 

"I know." Audrey slumped, leaning against the wall. "I just. Hate it." 

Gloria rubbed her shoulder. Dwight sighed and bent down to scoop Duke up again. "Let's get him settled, then. There's still plenty more to do before this night is through."

* * *

The school's equipment locker wasn't large, barely big enough for a cot, but it was sturdy, made of thick steel mesh painted black. Dwight had some of his Guardsmen clear it out first; no one wanted to know what Duke might find to do with shot puts or lacrosse sticks next time he went black-eyed. He was stirring again by the time they got him set up, and Dwight hurried to close and lock the door behind him. Duke sat up slowly, eyes brown, and looked around the locker with a sort of resigned despair. He met Nathan's eyes through the mesh, then looked down at the sling and swallowed. 

"Guess even I saw this coming." 

"It's not permanent," Audrey said, her tone almost viciously determined. "We're going to fix this." 

Duke's lips twisted in an uncomfortable smile. "You're good, Audrey," he said hoarsely. "But we all know you can't solve every trouble." He spread his hands wide, eyes closing for a moment as he seemed to revel in the movement. He'd been in chains for days. "That's how we got here in the first place." 

Audrey flinched, but didn't turn away. Duke rested his elbows on his knees and stared at his hands. 

The fluorescent lights in the ceiling buzzed and slowly came to life. All four of them looked up at them, but only Dwight looked relieved. "Charlotte came through. There's one less thing to worry about." 

The words were barely out of his mouth when a scream erupted from somewhere down the hall. Duke's head snapped up, eyes — still brown — wide and concerned. Dwight hurried to the door, then paused and looked back, flicking his gaze from Duke to Nathan. 

"Go," Nathan said. "I'll watch him." 

"Nathan." Audrey frowned. "He already hurt you. Your arm —" 

It was Duke's turn to flinch. He looked away, staring at the empty equipment racks. 

"I'll stay," Audrey decided. "They might need your visions." 

"I'll take whoever wants to go," Dwight said, starting out the door. "Just as long as someone's keeping eyes on Crocker." 

"You're all heart, 'Squatch," Duke said, flicking an exhausted smirk in his direction. Dwight shook his head and left. 

"Parker," Nathan started. She held up a hand and he bit back a sigh. 

"He won't hurt me," she said. "I won't let him." She came over and popped up on her toes and gave Nathan a firm kiss. For that moment, the only things that mattered were her lips. Even after months together, the sensation still left Nathan reeling. By the time he regained his equilibrium, she was pushing him out the door. She closed it behind him and he stared at the wood for a long moment, trying to summon a vision. 

_Henry, the self-proclaimed Sandman, the Guard's voluntary jailor. Reaching for Audrey while her back was turned._

Nathan raised his fist to pound on the door, determined to warn her. 

"Nathan!" 

He looked down the hall. Vince leaned out of one of the classrooms, beckoning him over. "Hurry! The No-Marks Killer's struck again!" 

Nathan lowered his fist and tried to remember what boredom felt like. Or even relaxation. It'd been one thing after another since Charlotte had arrived, the troubles so fast now they overlapped. How was he ever going to work out how to fix Duke when everything else was breaking all around him?

He rushed down the hall, his arm tugging futilely in its sling. At least this time, he could be sure it wasn't Duke himself who'd done the breaking.

* * *

There wasn't much to see at the crime scene. There never was when the "No-Marks Killer" was involved, hence the name, but Nathan kept hoping to spot something that would give them a lead. Maybe spark a vision that showed him more than screaming victims and the strange, grey-green smoke of the Void. If that was a clue, it wasn't one they could really follow up on. None of the Teagues' research had turned up anything specific about the Void or what may or may not live there, and the only person who might know, Charlotte, was extremely tight-lipped on the subject. 

She was tight-lipped about most things. Even her plan to end the troubles. They'd tried asking her for her help when Duke first started going dark-eyed, but she'd only stared at him, her eyes wide and her brows furrowed, and said he wasn't like other troubled people. 

She'd said that after he'd exploded, too. But she never went into any more detail. Nathan had learned to stop asking. 

"His name was Tony," Vince said, reaching out to close the victim's milky, black-flecked eyes. "I had no idea he was even troubled." 

"He's not on the census," Dwight said. "But not everyone's being upfront about the new troubles." 

"Old habits." Nathan gave the room another, cursory scan, then headed back into the hall. "How many is that now?" 

"Seven," Vince said. "If word gets out. . . ." 

"We'll have a riot on our hands." Dwight looked down the hall towards the gym. And the office where Duke was locked up. "We're sure Duke has nothing to do with them?" 

"Had eyes on him all night. Hasn't gone anywhere." 

"You sure about that?" Dwight dropped his chin, levelling that Army Ranger stare at Nathan. "You didn't fall asleep or go to the bathroom and leave him alone at any point?" 

Nathan looked away. Dwight sighed. 

"Can't prove he did anything," Nathan said. 

"Can't prove he didn't. And I'm not sure 'innocent until proven guilty' is going to fly around here. Not when he's going black-eyed and mouthing off about eating people." 

"He's already locked up," Vince said. "What more can we do? Henry's trouble won't work on him." 

"Henry's trouble isn't our only option." Dwight kept his eyes on Nathan. "Plenty of old troubles out there that can incapacitate." 

Nathan nodded. "I'll check on him." He frowned at Vince. "Where's Dave?" 

Vince shook his head and shrugged. "Still keeping an eye on Henry, I imagine. We haven't forgotten your warning." 

"Good." Nathan had never shaken the image from his first visions, of Audrey laying insensible on a cot, staring blankly at the ceiling. As glad as he was to know that she wasn't _dead_ , he still didn't relish the thought of seeing her like that in real life. "Let me know when McHugh comes through." 

"You need to _sleep_ , Nathan." 

"I'm not leaving Audrey in there with Duke alone." 

"I can watch him," Vince said. "I know my way around a taser." 

Nathan opened his mouth to protest when his balance suddenly failed him. Dwight caught him by the good arm and started pulling him down the hall towards one of the classrooms set aside for sleeping. "No more arguing," he said. "You can't actually carry the entirety of Haven on your shoulders. I promise we won't let anyone get eaten while you get some rest." 

Nathan found his balance again and shrugged Dwight off. "The minute McHugh comes through." 

Dwight nodded. "Gotcha. Don't make me get Gloria to drug you." 

Nathan bit back a groan at the thought. Gloria absolutely would, too. And who knew how a sedative would mess with his new trouble. "Fine." He shoved through the door and all but tripped onto a cot. Darkness swarmed in before he even finished lying down.

* * *

He hadn't expected to sleep more than an hour or two. That was about all he'd managed at a time since before the fog wall went up. But even without pain, the stress of his broken arm had apparently done him in; when he woke, it was to sunlight streaming in through the classroom windows. 

And shouting. Couldn't forget the shouting. 

He rolled to his feet and nearly went sprawling, only managing to stay upright thanks to a quick hand from Vicky. He flashed her a smile of thanks, then glanced over at Aaron in his carrier on the teacher's desk, who was building to a truly piercing wail. He knew the Harker trouble was gone, had seen it destroyed himself, but he couldn't help the small pit of worry that opened up in his stomach whenever the baby cried. 

"What's happening?" 

Vicky shook her head. "I don't know. It started just before you woke up." 

Nathan nodded and opened the door. He glanced back again and saw Vicky hovering just behind. "Stay here." 

"I want to help." 

Nathan gestured to Aaron with his chin. "Help here." 

Vicky bit her lip, looking like she might argue, then nodded and hurried back to scoop Aaron out of his carrier. Nathan slipped into the hall, closing the door quietly but firmly behind him. 

The hallway was empty. The shouting continued in the distance, echoing off the cinderblock walls. It reminded him of his own time in this school, when he and Duke were teenagers. It'd been well after the last set of troubles had ended, but their class — any class, he suspected — had had their fair share of problems anyway, and it wasn't unusual for a fight to break out in the hallways. . . . 

This was angrier, though. Teenagers watching a fight tended to be more excited than anything else. Nathan automatically checked his belt for his service weapon, before remembering that he'd stopped carrying it when he started watching over Duke regularly. As a general rule, they tried to avoid giving Duke an opportunity to get his hands on a deadly weapon. 

Considering the strength he'd displayed last night, his hands were deadly enough as it was. 

Nathan ran through the halls, slower than he would have liked as he tried to compensate for his arm still bound to his chest in the sling. He was tempted to tear the thing off, but stopping to do so would take too much time. The way the noise echoed made it next to impossible to work out exactly where the shouting was coming from, and he headed the wrong way down the main hall about halfway to the doors before realizing that it was fading out instead of getting louder. He turned back and eventually found his way to the cafeteria, where it seemed like most of the evacuated population of Haven was gathered in a tight mob around the small stage at the end of the room. It was hard to make out what they were yelling about, too many voices all talking over each other and shouting at once, but he was sure he made out the name "Crocker" once or twice. 

His vision about them attacking Duke had involved lockers. He was sure of that. It wasn't as reassuring a thought as he might have liked. 

There was no way he'd be able to force his way through the crowd. Instead, he hopped up onto one of the tables near the door, stuck the fingers of his good hand in his mouth, and let out a sharp, piercing whistle. 

It didn't help. A few people along the edge of the crowd closest to him looked back at him, but the rest had their eyes firmly glued to the stage, and the people who stood there. 

Vince and Dave, Dwight and Charlotte. No Duke, and no Audrey. He hoped that meant they were both still safe and secure in the gym's office. Vince was fussing with an old microphone, which came on with a blast of feedback that proved much more effective than Nathan's whistling. 

"Everybody calm down," he said, using his deep, civic-leader voice, full of gravatas and an odd, implicit threat. Duke had always told Nathan that Vince could be intimidating when he needed to be, but Nathan had never really seen it himself until now. "We have the situation well in hand." 

"Well in hand?!" someone yelled from the front. Nathan recognized the voice of one of the members of the Guard, though he didn't remember the man's name. "Three more people are dead!"

The crowd started to clamor again. Nathan heard a voice say they'd come here to be safe, another demand to be allowed to go home. 

Dwight leaned into the microphone, pushing Vince out of the way. "An investigation into those deaths is underway. Until we can determine what happened, it's best that everyone remain calm and _where they are_." 

"We know what happened!" This from one of Reverend Driscoll's old followers. "It was Crocker! He's gone — off!" 

"We've all seen it!" The Guardsman again. It was somehow depressingly appropriate that all it took to bring those two factions together was scapegoating Duke. "He gave us all these troubles in the first place, and now he's hunting us down like dogs!" 

"That's not —" Charlotte started, her voice barely travelling back to where Nathan stood. Dwight set the microphone in front of her with another squeal of feedback. "That's not true. What's happening to Duke is not his fault. It was Mara, my daughter —" 

"Bullshit!" someone shouted. Charlotte flinched. "Mara's not real!" 

"She's Detective Parker's trouble!" 

"Parker and Crocker are in league together!" 

Dave caught Nathan's eye over the crowd and gave him a pleading look. Nathan wasn't sure what he expected him to do; he was as hated as Duke these days. No one would listen to him. 

Besides that, he didn't have a microphone. 

"Please," Charlotte said. "Listen to me! What killed those people isn't a trouble, it's the _removal of_ their troubles —" 

"Like the Crocker Curse!" 

Dwight took the microphone again. "Duke Crocker is under lock and key and has been under guard by Haven PD all night. He did _not_ —" 

"How do you know?" The Guardsman yelled. "He's got half a dozen troubles at least!"

"Where is he?" the Rev's man asked. "We have a right to know, to get _justice_ —" 

"That is _not_ going to happen!" Dwight said. "We can't let ourselves devolve into chaos!" 

That was exactly what happened, everyone shouting over each other. Dwight let out a frustrated growl. Dave shot Nathan another look, waving him over. Nathan looked at the crowd between them, then back at Dave and shook his head minutely. He should go. Check on Audrey and Duke, make sure no one else had managed to find their way to them. More of the crowd was starting to notice he was there, though, and he found them starting to turn his way. Nathan was reminded uncomfortably of the mob that had chased him out of town after the Barn disappeared. He resisted the urge to step backward — the last thing he needed was to fall off the table. 

The crowd muttered his name, commented on his police record, his screw-up with the Barn, his sling. There was no way they'd listen to him over Dwight or Vince. But he had to try. 

"They're right," he said. He could barely hear himself over the group. He cleared his throat and tried again. "They're right!" The noise died down to a dull mutter, and Nathan gathered himself. "Some of you have developed new troubles recently. Troubles that came out of Duke Crocker. I know how strange and terrifying that is; I've got one myself. Been trying to use it to make things better. May have only made them worse. None of that is Duke's fault." 

The noise started to build again. Nathan set his feet and tried to pick out faces he recognized, people who he knew he could win over. There were a lot of the former, not so many of the latter. 

"I've been keeping an eye on Duke for a good two weeks now. Trying to keep him safe. Trying to keep him under control." He huffed softly and shook his head. "Hell, been trying to do that for about 30 years." A low chuckle ran through the group, and Nathan's hopes started to rise a little. "Those of you know me, know I'm the first one to want to hold Duke Crocker accountable. Can't count how many times I've ticketed him, arrested him. So believe me when I tell you there's no chance that he killed those people. He's been under attack by the thing that did. The police, the Guard, we're going to find that thing, and we will bring it to justice. Real justice. Not a lynch mob. You want to help us, you do that by staying calm. Listening to instructions. And _trusting_ us." 

The group was silent by the time he finished, and he even saw a few people nod at him. Charlotte gave him an approving grin as Dwight started giving out orders to disperse. Vince inclined his head just once, looking proud. Dave was nowhere in sight. 

Nathan climbed off the table and headed into the hall with the first people peeling off the crowd. He headed for the gym by the most roundabout route he knew, in case someone tried to follow him. He had to make sure Audrey and Duke had made it through the night alright. 

The equipment locker door was open when he arrived, the cot upright and undisturbed inside. Audrey and Duke were nowhere to be found.

* * *

"Nathan. Nathan, stop." Dwight grabbed Nathan by the shoulders, then flinched back like he'd been burned. Nathan didn't bother to point out that he couldn't physically hurt him, broken arm or no. He also didn't stop pacing. 

The guilt and fear and grief that burned through him were painfully familiar. It was bad enough when he thought he lost one of them, when Audrey was drowned out by Mara or Duke spilling troubles into the sky. Both of them at once was more than he could stand. Last time, he'd run. Taken a page from Duke's book and gotten the hell out of Haven. He'd blamed it on the Guard, on becoming the town pariah, but it'd been cowardice, plain and simple. He'd lost six months to alcohol and biker gangs, desperately and fruitlessly seeking a way to make himself feel as awful in his body as he did in his head. 

Normal people didn't know how lucky they were, being able to externalize their grief. 

"Nathan," Dwight said again, hands coming back down on his shoulders firmly enough to stop Nathan in his tracks. "What happened? Where is Duke?" 

Nathan stared at him, wondering how the hell he could even ask that question. As though Nathan would be here, pacing uselessly, if he had any idea where Duke and Audrey could have gone? How the hell was he supposed to — "Visions." He took a deep breath, remembering Duke's calming exercises. "I need to have a vision." 

Dwight let him go and stepped back. "Good. I'll have my people start searching the school." 

Nathan tensed. "Quietly. Don't need another mob." 

"I'm well aware." Dwight pulled out his phone. "Just . . . do your thing." 

_An ear-shattering, ground-shaking scream. Audrey's friend, Grayson, cornered in a darkened room. A flash of metal, a splash of blood._

Nathan scowled and shook his head. He'd need to have Dwight put a watch on Grayson later. He tried again, focusing on the locker door. On the office as it had looked when he'd last seen it, Duke solemn but sane behind the mesh, Audrey watching over him. 

_Dave carefully closing the door to the school's basement, a look of determination giving way to one of confusion and fear._

Nathan gritted his teeth. "Dammit." 

"What?" Dwight asked. Nathan shook his head. He had to concentrate. He had to _find_ them. He wouldn't survive if he couldn't. 

_Duke, his eyes wide and angry and_ brown _, struggling against a grip on his arm. A voice, the same deep, unearthly echo Nathan had heard under Duke's back in the truck._

_"I made you, Crocker. You belong to me."_

_A flash of metal. A splash of blood. Duke's eyes drowning in that eerie, empty black._

Nathan gasped, the room swimming even as it came back into focus. Dwight grabbed his shoulders one more time, swearing. 

"Jesus, Nathan. Your nose is bleeding." 

Nathan pressed his hand to his upper lip then looked at his finger. There was a thin smear of red. "Doesn't hurt." 

Dwight let out a soft grunt. "What'd you see?" 

"Not sure. It was dark." The same dark as the Grayson vision. The same flash of metal. The same blood. "School basement." He bolted for the door, Dwight on his heels, calling orders into his radio to converge on the basement, but not to enter until he gave them the word. 

Nathan was pretty sure someone was about to get killed. He really hoped it wouldn't be Audrey or Duke. 

Dwight stopped him with a hand on his arm before he could open the door. "You know you shouldn't be going down there, right?" he asked. "We have no idea what state Duke's in right now, and you're already injured. Not to mention unarmed." 

Nathan yanked away. "You're not stopping me." 

"Oh, yeah, I know." Dwight shook his head, looking resigned. "Tried that before. Never works out. I just . . . had to say it." 

Nathan snorted and slipped through the door. He descended the dark stairs as quickly as he could while staying silent, Dwight just a few steps behind. He wished for his gun, for the distant memory of its weight in his hands. Haven wasn't large, but any port town was going to have its share of bad situations, even without the troubles. This reminded him uncomfortably of the handful of raids he'd gone on under his father's watchful eye. For a moment he missed the old man, the dull, ever-present pain of his loss sharpening to a harsh point. 

He'd lost too many people already. They all had. 

He could hear that deep, eerie voice in the distance, down the hall towards the school's boiler room, too far off to make out the words, though the tone seemed amused. He crept forward, ears straining. Duke's response was similarly low, but clear. 

"You can't get in anymore, can you." He sounded exhausted, but triumphant. "You pushed too far when you made me break Nathan's wrist."

Hope hit Nathan hard enough to make his vision wobble. He glanced back at Dwight, but it didn't look like he'd picked out the words. Nathan nodded to him and signaled for him to hold back. Dwight rolled his eyes, then pulled out his taser and pressed it into Nathan's palm. Nathan gripped it firmly and nodded again. He moved faster now; there was no telling what the No-Marks Killer would do now that he no longer held Duke in his thrall. 

"Let Grayson go." That was Audrey. Nathan let out a sharp breath of relief. They were both okay. So far. "He has nothing to do with this." 

"Au contraire." That deep voice, though there was something beneath it that Nathan almost recognized. Some tone or cadance. "He has everything to do with this. All of your so-called 'troubled' do." 

_Dave_. It was the word 'troubled' that did it. How often had he heard Dave talk about the troubles and the people who had them? That deep voice was his, just — warped. Dave was the No-Marks Killer. He was the one who'd been killing the troubled, trying to override Duke's will. But why? Was it one of the new troubles, some kind of horrible new evolution of Henry Nix's? But it shouldn't work on Duke, then, he was immune. 

A small whimper now. Grayson, Nathan assumed, terrified but trying to keep a hold on his own power, so his supernatural scream didn't injure Audrey. A hiss and a shout from Duke, from Audrey a desperate "No!" Then Grayson did scream, short but horribly sharp. Nathan flung himself at the wall, wrapping his arm over his head and pressing his shoulders to his ears as the hallways shook around him. 

He was on his feet as soon as it stopped, running for the door with his taser raised. He could hear Dwight down the hall, ignoring his instruction to stay back, and couldn't blame him. There was no ignoring that scream. Nathan burst in, swinging the taser to cover the room, assessing the situation as best he could while his ears still rang. Grayson knelt on the floor, his hand pressed to a spurting wound in his throat. Audrey was already moving to help him, while Duke lunged for Dave and his bloody knife. 

The front of Duke's shirt was splattered with blood. His skin was clean. 

His eyes were pitch black. 

Nathan instinctively aimed the taser at him, but hesitated. A cascade of images slammed through his head. 

_Duke wrapping his hands around Dave's throat as green-gray fog poured from Dave's mouth._

_Duke dropping before reaching Dave, taser probes in his back, his head smacking sickeningly into the concrete floor._

_The Guard rushing into the boiler room and Duke tearing through them like paper. Dave grabbing Audrey and vanishing into a sudden, hungry dark._

There was no good ending here. Whether Nathan tased Duke or Dave. Whether he stepped aside and left them for Dwight and the Guard to deal with. 

Whether Nathan let Duke run or begged him to stay. 

There was never a good ending. 

Nathan lowered the taser, breathing hard. He barely noticed as Duke tackled Dave to the ground, and Audrey pressed down onto the side of Grayson's throat. 

The visions would never show him anything good. They weren't a power. They were a _trouble_. 

Dwight burst into the boiler room, another taser at ready, McHugh just behind him with a crossbow. They took aim on Duke as his fist drew back, Dave prone on the floor beneath him. 

"Stop!" Nathan ordered. Dwight and McHugh both froze, looking over at him. "Duke's got this." 

Audrey looked up sharply from her first aid on Grayson, who seemed to be holding onto consciousness remarkably well. She didn't look quite as convinced as he was, but Nathan nodded to her, and she swallowed and nodded back. 

Duke let out a short, aborted roar and slammed his fist into Dave's jaw, then threw himself to the side and curled up, hands over his head. 

McHugh lowered the crossbow. Dwight kept his taser raised, but didn't seem to know where to aim it. "What the hell is going on here?" 

"Dave's —" Audrey paused, taking a deep breath. "He's possessed. Something from the Void. It's been collecting troubles." 

"The no-marks thing," McHugh said. Audrey nodded. 

"He wanted Duke to do it, too. That's why he's been going. . . ." She gestured to her eyes, then shot a worried look at where Duke lay. "He's been fighting it for weeks." 

"And you were that sure he'd win," Dwight said, eyeing Nathan skeptically. "Did you see it?" 

Nathan shrugged, pulling against his sling, and shook his head. "Just . . . knew. No one can control Duke but Duke." 

"Wouldn't . . . call it . . . a win," Duke said through clenched teeth. He didn't uncurl or raise his head, but Nathan was sure of what color his eyes were as he lay there. "Get Grayson out." 

"Duke —" Audrey started. 

" _Go!_ " 

Audrey looked back at Dwight. McHugh moved first, handing Dwight the crossbow so he could help lever Grayson to his feet. Audrey lifted her hands and signed quickly to him the moment McHugh took over holding pressure, explaining, Nathan assumed, that he'd be alright. That they'd get him help. 

"Gloria's waiting at the top of the stairs," Dwight said. McHugh and Audrey headed back down the hall with Grayson, and Dwight turned back to the room. "Duke, do you — can we help?" 

It was dark, but Nathan was sure he saw Duke start to shake. "Please leave." 

Dwight left. Nathan hesitated, then went over to where Duke lay. 

"Nathan," Duke ground out through gritted teeth. "You stupid fuck." 

"You won't hurt me." Nathan patted his broken arm. "Not again." 

Duke looked up. His face was deathly pale around those black eyes, his neck and jaw tightly strained. "For once in your life. _Listen_ to me." 

Nathan reached out and brushed a stray lock of hair from Duke's face. "No." 

Duke closed his eyes and pressed his face into the floor. Nathan sat down next to him. 

He'd keep an eye out while Duke came back to himself.

* * *

The darkness trouble seemed to have ended, a fact they learned when one of the Guardsmen Dwight assigned to clean up the basement accidentally bumped the lightswitch, giving the whole crew near heart attacks. The word went out to the whole shelter not long after that, and everyone able to was reassigned to help people pack up and head back to their homes. 

Nathan was informed in no uncertain terms that his arm meant he wasn't able to, no matter how much he protested. After Nathan's third attempt to do so _anyway_ , Dwight offered a compromise: he could help Gloria and Vicky pack up the infirmary. Nathan knew Dwight hoped that Gloria would take one look at him and order him to sit down and rest before he fell down. He agreed because he was hoping he'd manage to get at least a little bit of useful work in before exactly that happened. 

He lucked out: Gloria was out when he came in, and Vicky was perfectly happy to let him pack up gauze and first aid kits while she changed Aaron's diaper in the corner. And when Gloria did come in, she hardly looked at Nathan at all. 

"Get your ass in there and let me look at those wrists." 

Duke stumbled through the door, already looking back over his shoulder in protest. "Gloria —" 

"Nothing doing. Audrey did her best, but I know ligature marks when I see them. Who knows what kind of damage you managed to do to yourself while you were locked down. . . ."

Nathan stared down into the box he was packing and tried not to call attention to himself. He glanced up out of the corner of his eye and watched as Gloria bullied Duke onto a cot and checked him over, clucking and muttering about idiot men who couldn't take care of themselves all the while. 

"That's you, too, Chuckles," she said, leaning in to check a bruise on the side of Duke's neck. Duke rolled his eyes a bit helplessly in Nathan's direction. "Don't think I've forgotten about _your_ wrist." She straightened and looked right at Nathan. "You've got an appointment with some plaster the minute I hear there's an x-ray up and running." 

"Yes'm," Nathan said. He gave Duke another look. "It's no use fighting her. Even the Chief never won." 

Duke looked away and down. Nathan told himself that didn't hurt. 

He heard Gloria hum softly, and pictured her looking back and forth between them. Vicky cleared her throat from the corner. 

"Alright, Intern, let's get all this into the car." 

Vicky hopped right to it, plucking the box right out of Nathan's hands on her way out. Gloria scooped up Aaron and gave both Nathan and Duke sharp looks. 

"Sort yourselves out already. Nothing in this town's ever gone right because you two were at odds." 

She closed the door firmly behind her as she left. Nathan looked down at the box of bandaids he hadn't packed away yet, and tried to think of what to say. 

"Grayson's going to be alright," he said finally. 

"Yeah," said Duke. "Audrey said." 

Nathan nodded. He turned slowly, bandaids still in hand, then finally looked up. Duke still sat on the cot, already staring back. 

"I'm sorry," Nathan said. 

Duke looked startled. "For _what?_ You were trying to keep me — good." 

"Shouldn't have made you stay. You knew it'd cause problems. Should have trusted you." 

"Yeah, well. You never did before. Why would you start now?" 

Nathan winced. "Trusted you downstairs." 

"I noticed that." Duke frowned. "Why?" 

"The visions. They're always bad." 

"Well . . . yeah. I'd say that's what Haven's like even without the creepy wall of fog trapping everyone inside." 

Nathan shook his head. "No. They're _always_ bad. I've been — waiting. To see something good. Trying to use them to pick a path that doesn't lead to death and destruction. But they're not _useful_." 

He watched understanding spread over Duke's face. "They're a trouble. One of _my_ troubles." 

"Mara's troubles," Audrey said softly. She stood just inside the door. "They're hers, not yours. She cooked them up special to be extra nasty." 

"Kept trying to control things," Nathan said. "Control _you_. That was never going to work." 

"I could have killed Dave," Duke said. "And Grayson." He grimaced, clenching his hands into fists in his lap. "I _wanted_ to."

"It's not about what you want to do, Duke." Audrey walked over to him, crouching down and pressing her hand to his jaw. He closed his eyes and swallowed, but didn't pull away. "It's about what you actually do." 

"Like crush Nathan's wrist." 

Nathan looked down at his sling. "Doesn't hurt." 

Duke exploded to his feet. "For _fuck_ sake, Nathan —" 

" _Even when it does_ ," Nathan said loudly, overtop Duke's protest. He looked at Audrey. "When we end the troubles for good. It'll have been worth it." 

Duke pressed his hands into his hair. "You can't —" 

"You broke that thing's hold. When you broke my wrist. Said it yourself." 

"I should have done it earlier." 

"How?" Audrey asked. "I talked to Charlotte. That thing, Croatoan, she called it the devil. She's terrified of it, Duke. It can kill people without leaving a mark. It erased all our memories in the lighthouse. She said we're lucky it's not at full strength, or you might've done so much worse under its power." 

Duke swallowed again, eyes wide and scared. 

"It made a mistake." Nathan came over and gripped his arm. "Went after you too early. It can't get you again." 

"You sure about that?" Duke shifted away, not looking at either of them. "Because I'm not." 

"We are," Audrey said. 

"No one tells Duke Crocker what to do except Duke Crocker," said Nathan. 

Duke let out a sharp, pained laugh. "Yeah, except for Evi. Or the Rev. Or you or Audrey or —" He paced back to the cot and flung it aside, then dug his hands into his hair again. "I walked into _everything_ Mara did to me. Do you understand that? I knew who and what she was and we still — I let her —" 

_"You wouldn't be saying all this if you didn't have some kind of angle."_

_"I do have an angle, Duke. To_ help you _."_

_Their lips meeting. The steam filling the room dissipating. Because Duke believed he wasn't alone._

Nathan reeled. Audrey caught him by his injured arm, holding it against his chest even as she steadied him. Nathan braced for a flash of pain, but there were too many layers between her skin and his for him to feel anything. 

That was when Mara had troubled him, Nathan realized. When she'd turned him into her weapon. When she'd succeeded in doing what so many others had tried over the years. 

"Can't get you again," Nathan repeated softly. For a moment Duke's expression opened, all his usual masks falling away to show how desperate and scared he really was. "You made a mistake. We all did. We know better now." 

Duke's face closed down again, those masks of anger and sarcasm pulled firmly back into place. Nathan let out a low noise of frustration and moved into his space, making sure Duke had to look him in the eye. 

"Lesson's not that you can't trust anyone." 

Duke blinked, taken aback. He turned away, only to find Audrey at his side, looking as stern as Nathan was. 

"If Croatoan tries again, we'll stop him," she said. "We stopped Arla. We stopped William." 

Duke's head twitched side to side. "And what worse thing are we going to let through this time?" 

"Don't know," Nathan said. "Not going to look. We'll deal with what's happening _now_. Croatoan. The troubles." 

"And we won't do it alone," Audrey said. She flashed Nathan a smile, then turned back to Duke. "Any of us." 

Duke slumped, then nodded. "You know it's bad when the two of you are trying to tell _me_ about living in the moment." 

Nathan smiled and pulled him into a one armed hug. "Must've rubbed off on me over the years." 

"Nate." Nathan could see Duke trying to pull away and tightened his grip. "Nate, man, come on, your _arm_. . . ." 

"Doesn't hurt." Nathan pulled back just enough to see Duke's wide, exasperated, _brown_ eyes. "Doesn't hurt at all."


End file.
